Vaseem hard to oppose
FORM: HAS IMPROVED WITH EVERY RUN FOR MAGNER YARD
Portico stands out as the biggest danger.
Vaseem has adapted to his new surroundings with aplomb, and he looks perfectly placed to notch up his second win for his new stable at the Vaal tomorrow.
The four-year-old son of Vercingetorix has had three runs since joining Roy Magner’s stable and has improved with each run. He started off with 0.75-length second behind Garden Party, ran a 2.30-length third to top-class sprinter Al Sakeet in his second and then his victory was never in doubt last time, as he led from starts to finish to easily beat Iron Mike by 1.25 lengths.
As he was weighted to win that Graduation Plate cosily, the fouryear-old
gelding did not receive a penalty for that triumph.
Vaseem is not one of the besthandicapped runners in Race 7, a Progress Plate over 1200m up the Vaal straight. However, he is the in-form runner and ideally suited to the trip which is not the case with many of his opposition.
So, in spite of the fact there are three runners who are better weighted, Vaseem could prove very hard to beat and looks the stand-out bet on the card.
Gavin Lerena has picked up the ride for the first time.
The best weighted runner is Victoria Paige from the Sean Tarry yard but she has not raced since contesting the Grade 1 Summer Cup last November and is likely to be in need of the run. She does tend to need further and also has a habit of not jumping on terms so while she is likely to be running on at the death, she does not look likely to trouble Vaseem.
Paton’s Tears is much in the
same boat. She last raced in the Grade 2 Gauteng Fillies Guineas in May but ran poorly. She is also better over further but could run into the money.
Portico has improved since reverting to 1200m and is probably the main threat to Vaseem. Two runs back he finished a 1.25-length second to Crown Guardian over this course and distance with Warren Kennedy in the irons and he will be back on board for this race.